The cheapest and fastest would be the cover. Gives you time to save up bucks for a nice set. And the cover can be used on a deeper wheel after new purchase (minor trimming maybe). I should have skip the PX wheels I use now for training, but that's the way it is.

---

-shoki

Cover for the back, and a dedicated deep-V for the front......yes, they are "mismatched", but a front wheel and disk often are. Below is Cancellara doing it.

Having the dedicated front race wheel will allow you to go deeper (80-90mm), since on a super windy day you can always default back to the 101. It will also let you easily use a latex tube and lighter race-only tire (ex. Conti Supersonic).

---

ECMGN Therapy Silicon Valley:
Depression, Neurocognitive problems, Dementias (Testing and Evaluation), Trauma and PTSD, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)

I'm debating this now too. I have a 88mm deep chinese wheel with PT and cover now but might "upgrade" to some HED ardennes with PT and throw a cover on the rear and get a Jet 9 front. Other option is Jet 6 rear and cover it but wheel builder told me that the time savings would be negligible if you have a cover. But if you're looking for a deep rear with PT I might be selling mine soon and I have my S80 front for sale too! (shameless plug I know). But I am battling with that same question now but I think you for sure want a deeper front wheel than a 101 so try to get the cheapest route to a cover on rear and deep front.

---

Twitter - Instagram

I know a deeper front (even mismatched) will be faster but I guess what I'm asking is how much? I'm racing IMLP this year and honestly probably won't even use the cover. Not terribly concerned about my overall time in terms of saving a couple minutes (looking around 12-1230 finishing time). I am however very competitive in local sprint tris, usually the fastest bike split, and short tt's. How much time is a deep front going to save me over 10-15miles given that the 101 has tested faster than wheels at 50mm deep like the cosmic carbone.

I would assume that most ~80ish mm deep wheels would out perform the 101. But it is hard to say since every wheel company does their own testing so you cannot take one test and compare it to the other. There might be some independent research done on it but in sprints and short TTs seconds count even more so being the most aero is more valuable. Not sure the time over 10-15 miles but even if it's just a second every mile that 10 seconds is huge in short races. But I am not aero genius and there are plenty more people on here who can tell more. But I'd say get a deep front used and if you use a PT or something find a shallow wheel then cover it for races. It is very simple to do and in an IM it is a lot of free speed.

---

Twitter - Instagram

That disc cover will save you more time on the Ironman than all the sprint distances you race the rest of the year combined. Not sure why you wouldn't want to use it.

101s are pretty mediocre, especially for the price. Consider selling them then buying a better set of wheels for less and using the money to get a disc cover and front chinese clincher perhaps.

Just got them. Paid $600 for them. For that price they're outstanding :) if I'm going to spend money on wheels on want to be able to ride them everyday of the year. Really the whole reason I bought them. The only reason I've thought about the cheaper carbon set for races is that I wouldn't feel so bad about using them less often as I wouldn't pay much for them. I had a set of 808s that I only used in races on my old TT bike and It just ate at me that I didn't ride them as much when spending so much money

Ah yeah see if you can resell them for the $600 and pick up a used pair of bombproof $300-400 HEDs/Eastons/Mavics. Have that extra cash in your pocket and better/equally performing wheels. I think the 101s will only get cheaper now that they've been discontinued so selling sooner rather than later would be advised.

Totally disagree. The 101s out perform every wheel under 50mm. That's why I bought them. Regardless of them being discontinued they're outstanding wheels and I don't see them dropping below the $600 anytime soon.

In that case it doesn't make sense to drop another bucks in cheap set, probably the hubs are not as good as yours right now.
Cover the rear and the 101 is handable in every crosswind.
Does a 80mm v shape in the front will make you so much faster to justify the extra bucks?

---

-shoki

That's exactly the question I'm asking.

I raced a season with Hed belgiums and a disc cover. I had a PT at the time. I purchased a Sram S80 front wheel for $300 the following season and loved it. I wouldn't buy the V-shape technology since you're all about sprints then consider the yaw at most races will be very low. Like others had said, if money is an issue then are more effective options than running zipp 101s to give you the best all around choice at a variety of race distances and yaw angles. The fastest guy I know use to run a zipp 808 rear and a HED3 front, talk about mismatched. Who cares what it looks like, just go fast!

Have you thought about a PowerTap? Saw a Zipp 101 wheelset with a PT sell for less than $800. You could easily find a PT wheelset for $600 which will make you faster as a triathlete much more than any wheelset alone.

---

It's much more fun to play triathlete than be a triathlete....

I have a set of 101's with a powertap that I used a cover on for races. I also swap out the front wheel with a Flo90 though. I don't really like the cover at all because it rubs my frame slightly; Plasma 2.